Just a few more pictures...

The first photo is of me watching Federer practice before the Games. Yes, it is him. He is even better looking in person.

The next is of me at a mock press conference during training. Embracing the peace sign.

Then the press workroom I work at each day (minus the journalists and chaos), which was taken during training.

And finally, the food we eat each day, twice a day at our venues. You make the judgement.

Let the Games begin!

I apologize for not writing in a while. Let me recap a few things...

I won a raffle last week in our field hockey venue for tickets to the opening ceremony rehearsal (pic included). For those of you who watched it, my favorite part was the opening with the light-up drums. It really was a spectacular showing by China and the New York Times nailed it when they described it as "Lavish." At the rehearsal (on the 6th) they did everything except the torch lighting and the fireworks.

On the night of the opening ceremony a large group of us went to the Green near the stadium to watch it on the large jumbo screens. With hundreds of us sitting on the street (many had waited for hours for a spot) 95 degree heat, the ceremony began. But the TVs didn't show it. This was the last straw for me. The other girls stayed to wait 2 hours for the fireworks, but I went home. You see, I had been at a pizza restaurant the night before with a large group and my wallet had been stolen. I had already spent all day looking for it, canceling cards, and figuring out how to get money. Then, my water bottle leaked all over my bag and got my phone wet, so it didn't work (fortunately I let it dry out and it's working now). I was fuming, sweating, and had to leave for work the next morning at 6:30 so I just took a cab home to watch it on TV. This was actually a good idea because I'd already seen the rehearsal and on the TV I was able to see all the athletes and a close up of the ceremony.

The field hockey games began on the 10th- let me walk you through my typical day. At about 1:30pm I head to work and hang out in the press room until the journalists arrive around 4pm. At that point, it's my responsibility to make sure they are taken care of. I have to answer any question they throw at me. And these are tired, hungry, time-crunched journalists- so any question is game. They ask about food, bathrooms, the press tribune, how to fax things, what the daily schedule is, where to find a bus, etc. And I'm basically their first line of fire when they have a problem. My supervisor says, "Just smile, Kristine." (I posted a pic of her at the help desk)

Time flies once the games start at 6pm. It's so cool when I can hear the national anthems playing outside and watch it on the TV at the same time. The US women (our men didn't qualify) are ranked 11 out of 12 and they tied Argentina, number 2, the other night! I'd never seen this sport before the Games, but now I'm so into it! After each game there is a press conference. Sometimes, if they need help, I'm able to sit in and watch. After the last press conference I get to leave. I typically arrive home a little after midnight.

This schedule is long, but managable. It will get hard tomorrow because I have a night shift right now and then have to turn around and leave for work by 5:30am. Ahhh what I will do for the Olympics!

OH- and did I mention that I got to sit in while Federer and Nadal practiced tennis?! Yeah, the tennis courts are in the same venue as field hockey, so my accreditation allows me to get in there as well. (I have a pic of me with Fed in the background, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post this)

Mizzou hooked us up with beach volleyball tickets yesterday. I saw LAT vs ARG and AUS vs ANG. They also just told us that we will receive free tickets to track and field on the 16th. This includes several finals AND- the men's 100m final!

Gardens, Fragrance, and- you guessed it - food!

After a week straight of work, we finally had a couple days off! Did we slow down? Of course not. Despite the heat, Regan, Stephanie, Sam, and I decided to check out the famous Beijing Botanical Gardens on Saturday. Apparently, this is a much anticipated Olympic tourist spot, because all the gardens were decked out with bush sculptures of the events. (I included a pic of the field hockey guy) This place is so manicured it looks like a Better Homes and Gardens magazine! In fact, as we were leaving, we witnessed a bridal fashion photo shoot going on...

Sunday, we stayed the course by visiting the Fragrant Hills. There are a few nice trails that lead you to the top of the hills (mountain is more like it.) After two grueling hours of scaling the incline we made it to the top, not to be disappointed. The view was spectacular (what I could see of it through the sweat cascading down my face.) We lucked out with a rare clear day and were able to see miles of the mountain range. The Fragrant Hills have several temples and Chinese-style pagodas you can hike to, but we only made it to a couple before we had to head down. Oh yeah... we opted for the chair lift for the return trip. I know, I know, we are young and able, but we really did have to get back for a meeting by 5:45!

Ok, so for my little food tid bit of the day... we went to a Peking Duck restaurant the other night and were not disappointed! We had made reservations and they led us to a room we shared with one other family. In China, it is rude to finish all your food. It is an insult to the chef because it implies that they didn't feed you enough. So the family of 5 next to us had mountains of food, but we ordered a whole duck for the four of us and cleaned our plates! Can't quite grasp this concept. The cultural differences at meal time are so huge, maybe this is why I talk about food so much. Oh- and I don't think I've ever mentioned the size of the plates. You get one small plate, only a little bigger than a tea saucer plate, and this is what you use for your whole meal. The first few meals we had we thought they were for bread or appetizers. Not the case. I guess you're just supposed to put one bun on at a time...

K, that was lengthy sorry! Olympics start in 5 days!

An excerpt from my weekly summary...

We have to turn in weekly summaries on specific topics- this week was about the most interesting person we've met so far. I thought I'd include it in my blog... Jessie ROCKS!

Jessie, my Chinese press workroom supervisor at the field hockey venue, is the smallest person in the room, but has the biggest personality. Unfortunately, I don’t have the correct spelling of her Chinese name, so I’ll refer to her by her American name. She’s a 24-year old journalism grad student at Peking University.

My interest in learning about China is reciprocated by her enthusiasm to pick up on all the American nuances. For instance, we taught her the “pound” hand gesture where you make a fist and hit the top, bottom, and knuckles of the other person’s fist. Jessie thinks this is the coolest. Everyday when we leave she gives us all a pound, with her million dollar grin gleaming up top.

Her curiosities about Americans have become deeper recently. Jessie and I were talking about our families when she asked about my brothers and sisters. When I told her I was the only child she gave me a shocked face. “Why?” she gasped. I told her my parents were unable to bear more children, to which she responded, “Why didn’t they adopt?” I explained that they were content with having only one child and that some American couples choose not to have children at all. This seemed to be a concept Jessie could not grasp. She asked if couples would get lonely if they didn’t have children, and I replied that married couples could still feel emotionally satisfied without children. Yet again, Jessie was floored. I was beginning to see just how important a child is in a Chinese family, especially since families are restricted to having only one. (end excerpt)

Pin trading is a huge deal during the Olympics. USA flag pins, Iowa pins, Mizzou pins... the more specific the better. I made my first trade with Jessie- a Peking University pin for my Iowa pin. The goal is to see how many different pins you can get. It gets pretty intense. They even have pin trading centers and booths, but that's cheating in my opinion! Gotta meet people and work for those pins!

History

I just realized that some of you reading this may not know why/how I'm here at the Olympics. Here's a little history...

Last fall I heard of the opportunity to volunteer at the Games through the journalism school at Mizzou. I went to the informational meetings and cleared that it was okay to do both Australia and Beijing. Then we had the application process with letters of recommendation, forms, and an interview. After making it through that round we (about 60 of us) had to attend weekly sessions on culture, the Olympics, and reporting style. I was only able to make three meetings before going to Australia, but they sent all the ppts to me by email. The rest of the group had rigorous training, including practice debates and writing exams (all of which I was exempt from because of Australia, hehehe).

While I'm here I am officially a BOCOG (Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games) volunteer and I also have to write weekly summaries for a Chinese Culture credit. The picture is of my accreditation pass that makes me feel pretty cool, and also lets me ride all the buses and subways for free! I like to flash it to random people sometimes...

Ticket Frenzy

It has always been my dream to actually attend events at the Olympic Games... apparently this is the same exact dream as hundreds of thousands of Chinese people. The moment the announcement came that tickets would be on sale again on July 25th people showed up with their tents, mats, beer, cards, even their dogs to wait in lines. I thought I would surely be able to score tickets if I spent the night at the athletics stadium before it opened at 9am the following morning. Then I heard that there was actually a schedule- basketball and baseball on the 25th, track on the 26th, gymnastics on the 26th, etc. I made plans to secure my spot in line the next night. By the next morning rumors about the pandemonium at the ticket venues were swirling. No one had prepared for the mobs. No guards, no fences, absolutely no organization. Some of my friends who had waited for tickets said metal barricades had been bent, people had been trampled, and no tickets had actually been purchased. People who had waited for days in the heat (mid 90s) and smog (lung cancer waiting to happen) were knocked over and passed by those who had just arrived. Imagine the running of the bulls but with Chinese people. The "schedule" of ticket sales was abandoned and they sold out of pretty much everything within 24 hours.

Needless to say, I decided to try another approach. I began scouring craigslist.com, which resembles eBay, but more like classified ads on the internet (so no bidding, just selling). Of course tickets were much more expensive than face value, but still much cheaper than expected. After lots of emails and close calls I finally have tickets in hand for the night session of track and field on the 19th, including:

Women's 200m Round 2
Men's High Jump Final
Women's 5000m Round 1
Men's 200m Semifinals
Men's 110m Hurdles Round 2
Men's Discus Throw Final
Men's 400m Semifinals
Women's 400m Final
Women's 100m Hurdles Final
Men's 1500m Final

But of course the ticket buying became a fever... I found out that tickets were not yet sold out for softball (not at all popular in China) so I rushed to the venue. Stephanie and I managed to get class A tickets to USA vs. Canada and China vs. Australia in the same session! The kicker- they were only 50 yuan, which is $7 each! All tickets for all events at face value were $110 or less. I honestly expected prices to be between 200-700 dollars for the Olympics. That's the blessing of exchange rates.

I have a few other ticket options pending, including beach volleyball and another track and field. Swimming sold out long before I even got to China.

The smog was terrible today. I have a picture above. You might think it's just foggy, but really it's smoggy. I feel like I'm breathing second hand smoke all day. Journalists were able to enter the country today so I'm interested to see what they have to say...

On a more positive note- my uniform is pretty cool! Oh, and I hijacked one of the scooters at the venue. They're harder to ride than I though! hehe My supervisor, Jessie, is really sweet. Today she taught me how to count and ask a taxi driver 'how much further' in Chinese. We've been preparing for the journalists' arrival by setting up the press workroom and trying to think of all the questions they might ask us so we can be prepared with answers. The test field hockey match proved that we are still a little unorganized...

Tonight Sam, Regan, Lindsay and I found a little hole in the wall dumpling restaurant that restored my faith in Chinese food. The place is famous for their multicolored (dyed) dumplings. Was a little weird eating a purple one, but good nonetheless!

The picture at the bottom from L to R is me, Wendy, and Stephanie.

Summa time

I knew it was only a matter of time before I NEEDED to find a pool. I'm a pool rat for life, what can I say? We had the weekend off so we hit up Google to find a swimming hole in Beijing. After finding one, managing to get the front desk to translate directions, and getting lost in the taxi, we made it there. The Chinese are quite a bit more modest in their swimwear (mostly one pieces or tankinis) and I thought at any moment I would be scolded by one of the moms for an inappropriate bikini... but they didn't. It was a more of a little kids pool so we really didn't swim, but soaking up the rays felt nice. We did this two days in a row...

Also at the pool I was starving and had no choice but to try some mystery meat on a stick. They cooked it in hot oil in front of me and several days later I'm still living, so I guess it was fine. Speaking of strange food, a couple nights ago some friends and I decided to brave the night market. This is a long line (two block long maybe?) of street vendors selling food- everything from fried scorpions (which Regan tried in the pic) to silk worms to starfish on a stick. Usually I'm pretty brave with weird food, but I was already feeling a little sick with a cold so I didn't put my stomach through that rollercoaster. They did have regular food like fruit, dumplings, and fried ice cream, too.

I talk a lot about food don't I? haha Well, we were starving for mexican food last week and found a little place called La Bamba with a great happy hour, good nachos, and a pool table. They played country music while we attempted to play pool (i'm afraid we're terrible) and I almost felt like I was in Texas or Mexico or something. Was a good night.

Oh- and one of the coolest things I've seen on this trip was the Chinese Acrobat show! The ladies could pull their legs over their heads and balance little chandeliers on their feet at the same time. They must have a few less ribs than me... The men jumped through hoops and did crazy stunts- most without safety harnesses or nets! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures. When our group came out of the theater we all had our mouthes open, but were speechless!

Yesterday I had my first day of training at the Olympic Green (my field hockey venue). Although I will not be working as a flash quote reporter I've accepted my job as is and am looking at it through a more positive lens. Officially, I will be an assistant in the Press Workroom where all the journalists go to get their quotes and work on stories. I will be there to answer questions and guide them to the mixed zone (where reporters talk to athletes) or the venue. My supervisor is actually from Sydney and has worked a few Olympic Games before this. One of his jobs was in marketing at the Games, so hopefully he'll be a good contact for later! During lunch we were able to go inside the hockey, archery, and tennis venues (which are all close to each other). I actually got to stand on the hockey field and also stand over where Federer and Nadal will play tennis! This was the first time all of this actually seemed real.

Just an off day today. I'm going down to layout in our back yard of the hotel. We like to imagine that we're in Cancun cuz the restaurant has little umbrellas like Mexico would. If you just close your eyes it feels like paradise...

More later.